Security at major airports in India was heightened Thursday after warnings of hijacking and terror strikes from the Deccan Mujahideen, a hitherto unknown terror outfit that claimed the responsibility of the Mumbai attacks last week, officials here said. Top security officials met here in the wake of an e-mail threatening to attack three major Indian airports - Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore, sources said. The e-mail also specifically mentioned that the attack would take place between Dec 3 and 7, a government official said.
According to the sources, the e-mail was sent to the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport in New Delhi, following which the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) stepped up the security arrangements at these airports.
Airport officials here refused to divulge details about the e-mail but the sources said the e-mail was tracked by the Interpol to Lahore city in Pakistan sent by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operative.
An official, requesting anonymity, said: “We had specific intelligence inputs that militants from Pakistan or Afghanistan were planning to strike airports (in India) ahead of the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri Masjid.”
The unprecedented security measures at the three major airports and 13 others across the country come following the Nov 26 terror attacks in Mumbai that left 172 people dead.